This Week In The Laboratories Of Democracy

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Welcome back to our weekly survey of what's goin' down in the several states where, as we know, the real work of governmentin' gets done, and where Maggie say that many say they must bust in early May, orders from the DA.

It is a rich, full time in Oklahoma, as we learn from Blog Special Heatstroke Medical Adviser, Friedman Of The Plains. We should begin there. And we may never leave. Let's see what's up with the state's public schools, because there's always some conspiratin' to be found there.

State Superintendent Janet Barresi spoke Saturday at a Tulsa church at an education forum sponsored by a conservative grassroots organization, but it wouldn't be fair to say she was preaching to the choir. Barresi, a self-described "strong conservative," faced pointed questions about the Common Core state standards initiative from those who gathered at the Spirit Life Church, 5345 S. Peoria Ave., at a program sponsored by the Tulsa 9.12 Project.

May I say that, even though she is a "strong conservative," I admire Ms. Barresi's pluck at facing this audience without an whip and a chair.

According to its website, the Tulsa 9.12 Project has as its objective "to take our out-of-control government back to the American people."

Oh, dear. This cannot end well. Common Core is the Agenda 21 of education to these folks.

Barresi said Saturday that while Common Core state standards for English and math have been adopted in Oklahoma, standards in other subjects including science and social studies "were laced with very liberal principles," prompting an ongoing revision process to make Oklahoma's standards align with state values. While the Oklahoma Academic Standards are being designed to provide a framework to prepare state students for college, career and citizenship, Barresi said it is the local districts that determine curricula as teachers design their own instruction for their classrooms. "I don't tell teachers how to teach a standard," Barresi told the crowd that assembled on Saturday. "It's impossible for me to tell a teacher how to teach something."

She recalled an encounter she had as a parent with a teacher who taught students that President Ronald Reagan was a criminal due to the Iran/Contra affair and should have been impeached.

Facts are stupid things, even in retrospect. Not good enough, though, Ms. Barresi. They know a RINObama when they see one.

Barresi said Saturday that she ran on a "reform agenda" in 2010. Yet, one attendee told the Republican Barresi to her face that she believes Barresi has only perpetuated the work of Democratic predecessor Sandy Garrett. Another asked Barresi if she just does what she wants or if she tries to do what the people of Oklahoma want. When Barresi replied that she attempts to implement the will of the Oklahoma Legislature, audible groans went up from the crowd. "I always appreciate input," said an unfazed Barresi...

...sipping discreetly from a small silver flask full of 100 proof bourbon.

Let us journey south of the Red River to Texas, where they're not even pretending any more as to why they decided to challenge the Voting Rights Act and give John Roberts a chance to declare the Day Of Jubilee.

According to a brief Abbott filed earlier this month, "[i]n 2011, both houses of the Texas Legislature were controlled by large Republican majorities, and their redistricting decisions were designed to increase the Republican Party's electoral prospects at the expense of the Democrats."

The argument is fundamental to Texas's new claim that its gerrymandering was not About Race -- because, after all, nothing is ever About Race --but, rather, that it was simply post-racial ratfking by the Republicans in the state legislature, although I am paraphrasing just a tad there.

Let us fly north then, to Ohio, where the state legislature is still obsessing over the ladyparts, and with what the ladies who have them do with them, and, to that end, is presenting an ensemble performance of The Little Wingnut That Could. They have revived what those of us who remember Top 40 radio like to call the DeFranco Family Bill, and they think they can...they think they can...

Wachtmann acknowledged in a Wednesday interview that he expected the bill to face obstacles. Still, he said he wanted to give it another shot. "I wouldn't introduce a bill if I didn't think it could be done," said Wachtmann, of Napoleon, in northwest Ohio. Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, stars of TLC's "19 Kids and Counting," are also expected to speak at Thursday's news conference.

Gill and three friends - John Patrick Reagh, Shanna Marie Smith and Bryce Christopher Stone, all 18 - were charged Friday with four felony counts of possession of an explosive device. They're accused of driving around town and throwing plastic bottles filled with toilet bowl cleaner and shrapnel at people and property. Nobody was injured, and Gill told KSL they never threw the bottles directly at people. "We didn't think about what we were doing at the time," Gill said. "We didn't know that it would get to this point. We meant for it to be a practical joke and never had any intentions to harm anyone at all.

Apparently, her "talent" in the pageant was on the piano. Which is a shame. A couple of homemade hand grenades would've livened up the proceedings considerably.

And let us finish in Missouri, where they only defrock rodeo clowns, but where political clowns last forever.

Arguing that the mandate runs afoul of his Catholic beliefs, state Rep. Paul Wieland (R) filed suit in the U.S. District Court in St. Louis against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and a pair of other federal agencies, asking that the court declare the mandate established by the Affordable Care Act to be a violation of his freedom of religion. By virtue of his role as a legislator, Wieland's family qualifies for a state health plan. "I see abortion-inducing drugs as intrinsically evil, and I cannot in good conscience preach one thing to my kids and then just go with the flow on our insurance," Wieland said, according to the Post-Dispatch. "This is a moral conundrum for me. Do I just cancel the coverage and put my family at risk? I don't believe in what the government is doing."

Yes, in fact, that is precisely what you should do, if your Catholic beliefs demand it, which they shouldn't, because nobody is saying you have to buy birth control, just that the other people in your insurance pool should have the opportunity to buy it if they wish. If your Catholic beliefs run contrary, then bail out, but do so knowing that your Catholic beliefs are, frankly, an ass.